Apparatus for transferring and conveying articles



J. A. KAY

July 28, 1953 APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING AND CONVEYING ARTICLES FiledSept. 10, 1948 A rogmsys.

Patented July 28, 1953 APPARATUS I FOR. TRAN SFERRING AND CONVEYINGARTICLES James Arthur Kay, Gainsborough, England, assignor to RoseBrothers (Gainsborough) Limited, Gainsborough, England, a British com-Application September 10, 1948, Serial No. 48,568 a Y M In Great BritainSeptember 15, 1947 This invention relates to apparatus for transferringand conveying articles, the apparatus being of the kind in whicharticles, for example, cartons, or other block-shaped articles, are fedby a conveyor to a transfer station at which the articles aretransferred to a further conveyor of the kind,xfor example, a comprisingspaced pushing elements whichforward the articles in definite spacedrelationship to each other.

According to the invention, there is provided an apparatus of the abovekind, comprising a feed conveyor, 2. fixed stop protruding into the pathof the articles on said feed conveyor so as to hold the articles againstmovement under the influence of said feed conveyor after the leadingarticle strikes said stop, and a rotary transfer member movingcontinuously and adapted to engage each article in turn so as to move itclear of said fixed stop and allow it to be forwarded by said feedconveyor.

The apparatus preferably includes a delivery conveyor of the kindcomprising a series of spaced pushing elements secured to a chain, thechain being driven by a chain wheel mounted for rotation about an axistransverse to the path of movement of the articles and to their generalplane of movement. In such a case, the transfer member may beconstituted by each of the pushing elements in turn as they move roundthe circumference of the chain wheel, the chain wheel being so disposedthat each pushing element in turn moves into the path of the articles onthe feed conveyor in the vicinity of the fixed stop so as to strike theleading article held by the fixed stop and move it clear of the fixedstop.

The apparatus according to the invention may be used in any case wherearticles are required to be delivered from one machine and fed toanother in a definite timed relationship. Thus, for example, theapparatus according to the invention may be used for feeding emptycartons to a carton-filling machine, or for feeding filled cartons to acarton-closing machine; or again, the apparatus may be used for feedingcompleted cartons to a labelling or wrapping machine.

By way of example, the invention will now be described in greater detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings, as applied to an apparatusfor feeding filled cartons to a cartonclosing machine.

In the drawings;

Figure 1 is a plan view of part of a cartonclosing apparatus,

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown in Figure 1, and

2 Claims. (Cl. 19820) Figure 3 is a detail ofthe apparatus shown inFigure 1, illustrating the operation of the transfer member. ReferringtorFigures 1 and 2, filled cartons II are conveyed towards a transferstation by a horizontal belt conveyor I2. During such movement, thecartons H are guided by guide rails I3 and I4 which are inclined withrespect to the path of movement of the cartons II so that the conveyorbelt I2 continuously urges the cartons II to one side of the conveyor,in this case towards the guide rails I3. The guide rails I3 terminateadjacent a fixed stop I5 pro-'- jecting into the path of movement of thecartons II on the conveyor I2 so as to arrest their forward motion. Thefixed stop I5 is constituted by the adjacent ends of guide rails I6which are slightly offset in relation to the guide rails I3, andco-operate with further guide rails I I to guide the cartons II duringtheir further movement.

Arranged adjacent the feed conveyor I2 at the transfer station is adelivery conveyor comprising a chain It provided with a series of spacedpushing elements I9, the chain I8 being driven by a chain wheel 20arranged for rotation about a vertical axis so disposed that, during themovement of the pushing elements I9 around the chain wheel 20, each inturn moves into the path of movement of the cartons II in the vicinityof the fixed stop I5 so as to strike the leading carton II and free itfrom engagement with the fixed stop I5 so that it can once more moveforward under the influence of the conveyor I2 which continues beyondthe fixed stop I5 to a position somewhat beyond the axis of the chainwheel 20. In order to allow of the transverse movement of the cartons IIunder the influence of the pushing elements I9, the guide rails I 4 fallshort of the fixed stop I5 by an amount approximating to the length of acarton, such distance being made up by a corresponding projection of theguide rails IT.

The conveyor I2 delivers the freed cartons in succession to a stationaryplatform 2| which acts as a brake and brings the cartons t rest. Thestationary platform 2| leads to a belt conveyor 22 moving in the samedirection as the feed conveyor I2 and disposed immediately below theadjacent lap of the chain I8 so as to form part of the deliveryconveyor.

It will be seen that as the pushing elements I 9 of the chain conveyormove round their chain wheel 20, and pass through the space between theguides I3 and I 6, each in turn strikes the leading edge of the leadingcarton II and causes it to move transversely of its normal path ofmovement until it is clear of the fixed step ill (see Figure 3). Theperipheral speed of the chain I 8 is somewhat higher than that of theconveyor 12 so that as soon as the pusher [9 has moved the carton I Iclear of the stop 15, it moves on ahead of the carton ll. Ihe freedcarton l i is then moved forward by the feed conveyor H as mentionedabove to the stationary platform 2| where it remains until the nextsucceeding pushing element l9 moves up behind it (after freeing the nextsucceeding carton H from the fixed stop 15) and pushes it across thestationary platform 2| and on to the belt conveyor 22 which has aperipheral speed equal to that of the pushing elements 19 so as to avoidsliding contact between the bases of the carton H and the apparatuswhich would otherwise occur if they were merely pushed along astationary channel by the pushing elements 19. The chain conveyor isarranged to operate in timed relationship with the carton closingmachine (not shown) so that each pushing element 19 delivers a carton Hto the machine at the appropriate time.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for transferring and conveying articles comprising a feedconveyor, a fixed stop protruding into the path of the articles on saidfeed conveyor so as to hold the articles against movement under theinfluence of said feed conveyor after the leading article strikes saidstop,

an endless delivery conveyor arranged adjacent said feed conveyor totravel over a path at least a portion of which is rectilinear, saiddelivery conveyor being arranged to travel at a higher rate than that ofthe reed conveyor and provided with a series of spaced pushing elementseach adapted in turn firstly to engage the leading article as thepushing element approaches the rectilinear path so as to constitute atransfer member for moving the leading article laterally clear of thefixed stop so as to allow it to be forwarded by said feed conveyor, andthen to move forwardly past the leading article along the rectilinearpath into engagement with the preceding article forwarded by the feedconveyor so as to move that article towards a delivery station.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the delivery conveyor comprises anendless chain to which the pushing elements are attached, the chainbeing driven by a chain wheel mounted for rotation about an axistransverse to the general plane of movement of the articles.

JAMES AR'I'HUR KAY.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,998,842 Moseley et a1 Apr. 23, 1935 2,153,039 Darling Apr.4, 1939 2,245,559 Everett June 17, 1941

